Lengthening a 2004 Ford Taurus

After remounting the new longer hood and the front lights, I positioned the front and back portions of the cut fenders to follow the side contour of the new hood at their mating edges (picture). Once fitted in place, I tack welded in the 18 gauge inserts which I had formed (pictures) to fill the 5.5” gaps in the fenders (picture).


Next, I formed two strips of 1/8” steel bar (picture) to form the steel portion of the contours of the front wheel wells (which were now longer). After locating and welding them in place, I cut out and welded in 18 gauge sheet metal to fill the gaps (pictures).


It's now time to start working with plastic in order to make the front and rear bumper covers (and to avoid the hastles that await me under the dashboard).



More to follow…..

I started with the front bumper cover because it is smaller than the rear bumper cover.

Regarding my front bumper cover, because I am trying to make the car look long and lean in profile, the first thing I did was cut the bottom 2.5” off of the front bumper cover (picture). In addition, I cut out a small portion at the back of the bumper cover which frames the front of the wheel well on each side to make the wheel well a little larger (just like I did in the rear of the car). It is my hope that this too will help elongate the car in appearance.

I purchased another 10’ length of 3/4” diameter polypropylene rod (I have one already for the back bumper cover) to use to reinforce the lower edge of the new bumper cover.



First, I made a plywood form (picture) using the cut off portion of the bumper cover to get the right contour. After making this wooden form, I clamped the polyproylene rod to it and heated the rod using a heat gun (pictures) and shaped it to the contour of the wooden form (picture).

My plan now is to cut the lower flat portion of the lower cutoff section of the bumper cover and tack weld it in place then weld it to the upper section. Once this is done I will weld in the 3/4" diameter formed rod as a reinforcing member to the new bumper cover.


More to follow…..

I forgot to take pictures during my modifications to the new front bumper. Basically, I used a soldering iron to do the plastic welding this time in order to localize the applied heat so that I wouldn't warp or melt through things. It was a much slower process but yielded far better results.

Because I had gained so little narrowing effect (height wise) by cutting off the base of the bumper cover the first time, I decided to simply reshape the sides of the bumper cover (adding curvature to them) in order to raise up the bottom where they meet the wheel wells. I did this through welding a couple of plastic rib sections to the inside of the bumper cover just in front of the wheel well openings. I also trimmed a little out of the sections of the bumper cover just in front of the wheel wells.

Time to move to the rear bumper cover.....

Now that I have some plastic welding practice, I can say that the trick is to tack weld pieces together, and then run a slow steady bead of plastic welding rod (I bought 1/8" polypropylene rod from McMaster-Carr 100ft coil for like $12) using a soldering iron which I had shaped the tip to a 1/4" round. To weld I drug the soldering iron along the joint where I wanted to join two pieces together so that it melted the two sides along its sides while at the same time melting the plastic welding rod at its trailing edge, which flowed into the weld puddle just behind the tip if the iron.

Here are pictures of the rear bumper build up. I have spent over a week (a few hours at a time) to accomplish what you see in the pictures. It is not hard to do, it just takes time.

More to follow.....